Commentary: Congestion pricing was dead, to begin with

Long Island Business News, Apr 11, 2008 by Jerry Kremer

Albany's defeat of congestion pricing this week should come as no surprise.

Regional planners and business leaders jumped on board quickly when Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed an $8 entrance fee for autos entering the city below a designated area. Shortly thereafter, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and a small group of legislators endorsed the proposal. Proponents of the plan were jumping for joy.

But like the ill-fated West Side stadium, congestion pricing never had a prayer of being adopted. Some of the same city officials who promoted the stadium plan grossly miscalculated the state legislature's willingness to adopt a tax on motorists.

The first mistake was the failure to evaluate who the most logical opponents of the plan would be. It was a given that all of the suburban legislators representing Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties, both Democrats and Republicans, would be against congestion pricing.

While it was easy to get a few City Council members to trade their support for promises of better mass transit, the mayor's people couldn't overcome the strong undercurrent of opposition from legislators from Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.

There are quite a few term-limited city council members looking around for a safe landing, and a controversial vote in favor of congestion pricing could cost an assembly or senate member their job come this November.

Beyond the political obstacles that the proposal faced, not enough was done to craft a proposal that the public and the elected state officials could support. A state commission held numerous hearings, but many of the comments they heard never made it into the final plan.

Nonprofit organizations complained they would be strangled by the new fees. Small businesses that make multiple trips to the city each day claimed they would be put out of business. Poverty groups weighed in alleging that drivers who are forced to come to the city by car would lose their jobs.

It is common knowledge that many controversial ideas do get passed in both Washington and Albany, thanks to last minute horse trading. Some legislators, anxious to give the mayor a victory, suggested that the plan be put into effect for two or three years; and if there was too much unhappiness, it would not be renewed. The city declined to put a limit on the plan's life.

At the very last minute, the idea was floated that the area subject to the $8 fee be made much smaller. State legislators familiar with the plan, such as Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, suggested higher fines for double parking and other fee increases for car services that clog the city streets. "Thanks, but no thanks," was the city's reply.

The failure of the congestion pricing plan now raises the question as to whether it can be revived or if there is some other way for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to get the estimated $350 million in new revenues. They say that nothing in Albany is ever dead, and maybe that's so in this case.

But, it's time for city and state officials to go back to the drawing board and figure out ways to raise the money. People who park their cars overnight in the city could be forced to get a parking permit. The law allowing that fee has been on the books since 1968. Auto registration fees for cars owned by city dwellers could also be raised.

Raising money for mass transit is a very worthy goal, and no one should throw in the towel. But city officials have to abandon their old ideas on how to build consensus in Albany and come up with a new approach that works.

Jerry Kremer, who served for 23 years in the state Assembly, is a partner in the Uniondale law firm of Ruskin Moscou Faltischek. You can reach him by e-mail at ajkremer@rmfpc.com.